I invite you to watch this video from team respawn which is evidence of my factual statements of metrics in game such as the cost of units which doesn’t need evidence its there in game at the vehicle and air production buildings respectively.
Some things to bare in mind the reaver army barely scrapes a win against the banshees and there is little to no micro management on both sides they let the AI do the targeting this is the thing with the statements from many about testing its not testing its in a controlled environment.
When a full pop of air attacks a force with anti air a skilled player will allways focus down the AA units first if the AA opposition does this they will likely overkill a single target and lose overall damage output on the Air so there’s that to take into consideration.
Furthermore the cost of the AA vs the air is one of the biggest imbalances let’s do the math as evidence has been requested so many times to detract from the truth of the argument and that is the economy hit and utility of Air units not the fact that some people believe this post to be a complaints post regarding if you build air you win everytime which is NOT what I have said at any point so anyway the maths.
Reavers:
Supply’s: 175 x 14 = 2450 Supplys
Power: 225 × 14 = 3150 Power
Tech 2: 1000 PowerBanshees:
Supplys: 275 × 30 = 8250
Tech 2: 1000 PowerLet’s break down some hard truths here.
Yes the banshees cost 3 times as much supply’s as the reavers but supply’s are easy to amass power is most certainly not comparable in economy terms to supply’s.It will cost you around 2000 supply’s and 1000 power to build 3 generators and upgrade them to be any where near close enough to being able to afford that much anti air in the first place and that’s before the costs to reach tech 2 in the first place.
The banshees on the other hand require much less investment to get up and running and thier return on investment is much much higher so so far 1-0 to the Air spammer This is without taking into consideration the additional cost to the reaver army for the shroud, locusts, marauders and grunts ect which I estimate to be another 500-1000 Power and around 2000-3000 supply’s based on the footage in the video.
This brings the total investment to bring down a full pop of banshees to a whopping.
7450 Supply’s
AND
6150 Power
So with that being said from this calculation we can deduce that Air has beaten its counter not only in economy but in performance as well whilst also knowing that from the testing in the video little to no micro management was used to counter the AA from the opposistion.
And we are only looking at banshees a pack of hornets would be even more of an overkill on the AA at only a slight increase in supply cost vs the bansheesAnd then there’s the wolverines which are considered weaker than the reavers what happens there is guaranteed to be even more of a win for the Air.
So in closing the people who wanted evidence to what I’ve said you have it there in front of you.Some like minded people have attempted to warp the intent and messege of mine and others posts regarding this topic and belittle alot of people about thier need to learn to be better at the game to stop complaining when they know nothing about the person they are insulting let alone never even played a match with or against them which is a cop out for avoiding the facts of the issues raised in the Air vs AA debates.
But here is the evidence to back up my proposed balance changes and to further enforce what alot of people, postums and the devs are saying and working to fix for the betterment of balance and elimination of the concept of a single unit army in a truly amazing RTS game and that is that air is over performing against its counter.
Can a complex army of reavers take on banshees
Halo Wars 2 Mythbusters
To clarify my position on this matter as some people like to warp the posts in a different direction putting peoples argument on this topic down to lack of skill or ability to play at a competitive level.
This post is for the community to come together and voice concerns over the single unit spam of air and its dominance and utility in the game as it stands, and as postums has stated air is over performing right now and has been for a while as most people with common sense and the devs have confirmed this.
On the other side there is a so called self proclaimed elite few forum warriors that attempt to shut down any constructive argument under the guise of your a noob or your service record gives you no experience or right to question game balance.
You have to be blind, in denial or an advocate of spamming only air to see how overpowered it is else you wouldn’t defend it so religiously. But I digress.So here’s the thing. Air units are totally over powered. Period. And this is since the most recent patch in march and I hope for a correction by the devs by further buffing AA in the next update.
One of the main reasons behind this is the sheer cost to counter air is unbalanced as it costs power to build anti air something that is not easily acsessable or in abundance in the early game and even the mid game.
On the otherside air costs only supply’s which we all know and can agree on is much to easy to spam early and mid game.
Furthermore air is incredibly easy to manoeuvre and requires litterly no skill to melt opposition as AA can be focused down in mere seconds and can reposistion in a heartbeat and out range AA using bases as LOS blockers allowing for air units to focus down bases and structures.
Ways this can be fixed.
For AA balance:
Half power cost on AA
Speed up build time of AA
And buff AA damage
For Air balance:
Add 75-125 supply’s to cost of air
Reduce core Air damage against AA, structures and turrets.
Increase build time
This will mean that players have to build anti vehicle to counter AA and anti building to destroy bases not just laser everything down with overwhelming air and manoeuvrability.
Realistically 1-2 AA should be able to take down at least 2-3 Air units quickly and efficiently but its quite often the case that the air will move away from AA and find someone without AA which implies that every game you need to build majority AA.
I myself have pulled off many full air rushes and its kinda of sad the place air is right now as nothing is equivalent to thier power and utility in game and as such the direction of the game is heading to a full air pop meta in essence destroying the need to build other great units in the game and strategize mixed build army’s for more depth of combat.
Dench.